Dinner at Schloss Bueker last night, with his homemade chili, cornbread and roast turnips. A lovely, hearty meal and fine company augmented by a couple of lovely reds.

We started with leftovers of a 2001 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett that David had opened the prior evening. Absolutely lovely; a core of pure, mineral-tinged citrus, apple and pear fruit that's still very youthful, and just barely accented by the start of developing savoury notes. There's wonderful cut and focus to the flavours, restrained sweetness and stunning balance, and each glass of this disappears all too quickly as this shows a remarkable sense of drinkability and refreshment that I find too rarely in modern Kabinett.

Onto the reds.

1986 Château BeychevelleFirst impressions after pulling the cork are of an incredibly tannic, unyielding wine. Four hours after double decanting, this transforms into something much more accessible and fragrant; a combination of dark fruit, tobacco and leathery notes with a savoury earthiness beneath all conveyed on a frame that's surprisingly elegant and finessed for an '86. It's not a big wine - medium weight, polished and initially a little thin on the palate (though it seems to pick up depth and weight with time in the decanter), but really lovely to drink over a few hours.

2007 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes This still comes across very, very young, but it's nowhere near as impenetrable and unyielding as a bottle I had six months ago. Initially it's rather tight but after about an hour in the decanter it really starts to open out, developing vividly floral and peppery scents around a core of pure dark fruited flavours and faint meaty accents. It's still incredibly primary, but there's a sense of real purity and finesse to the flavours and striking persistence. Beautiful, classical Syrah.

Update on night two of the 2007 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes:The air has done wonders for the wine. Billowing floral notes, black fruit, tar and meat aromas pour from the glass. There's almost no point in actually drinking the wine, and in fact it's still fairly hard on the palate, but the aromatics give enough insight on the wine to give great confidence for the future. Bury bottles for 10+ years in the cellar.